


Do You Have Plans?

by Scarcettwo



Series: Valentine's Day [1]
Category: Archie Comics & Related Fandoms, Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Ambiguous sexuality, Baking, Bisexuality, Confusion, Food Fight, Friendship, M/M, Pre-Relationship, Valentine's Day, gift bags, ish, teen-typical language
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-03
Updated: 2017-02-03
Packaged: 2018-09-21 16:34:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,840
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9557339
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Scarcettwo/pseuds/Scarcettwo
Summary: “He says he hopes you like twist ties.”Reggie choked on his own spit. “What the fuck?!” He sputteredThey were kicked out of the library.“I’m one hundred percent positive he means that in an entirely innocent way,” Archie said. “Well, ninety-nine percent.”





	

**Author's Note:**

> inspired by reggiemantled.tumblr.com

“So what’s your plan?”

 

“Huh?” Reggie lifted up his head. Where  _ was _ he?

Oh right, the library. He’d fallen asleep on his textbook, his dry, dry, history textbook. It’s only real use was as a pillow. He’d been reading the same sentence for almost an hour now.

 

“Your plan,” Archie repeated, swinging his backpack onto his chair and pulling out his folders. 

 

“For what? The essay due Friday?”

 

“For Valentine’s day,” Archie said. 

 

Reggie blinked. “It's that soon?”

 

“It’s Sunday. Four days away.” Archie shook his head. “You know, for a guy that flirts as much as you do, you think you’d be more aware of romance.”

 

“Valentine’s day isn’t romance, it’s capitalism,” Reggie pointed out. “Not that I have a problem with capitalism, but the real worth of the holiday is when all the candy goes on sale.”

 

“Well you can hate all you want,” Archie said smugly. “I’ve got a date.”

 

“Betty or Veronica?” Reggie asked absently, flipping to the index. He needed a very specific quote, and he hated history, and Archie never stopped talking about girls.

 

“Huh?” Archie looked at him, his turn to be confused. “No, I’m going out with Valerie.”

 

“So now you have three girls?” Reggie asked. “Save some for the rest of us man.”

 

Archie shrugged, cheeks pinking. 

 

It made sense that all the girls would be all over Archie. If he weren’t straight, Reggie would be all over him too. The hair, the eyes, the shoulders? Yup, if Archie liked guys, Reggie would definitely be trying to hit that, but since Archie didn't, he had to respect the bro code.

 

“I know!” Archie announced, earning shushes from other students. 

 

“You know what?” Reggie whispered. 

 

“What you should do for Valentine’s day,” Archie said. 

 

“Maybe i’ll just take Veronica out,” Reggie stuck out his tongue. 

 

“She’s having a girls night with Betty or something,” Archie shrugged. “I didn’t ask many details. Anyway, Jughead.”

 

“What does Jughead have to do with a girls night?” Reggie asked, baffled. 

 

“No, you should hang out with Jughead on Valentine’s day,” Archie said. 

 

“Dude, I’m not gay,” Reggie said. 

 

“Dude, it’s sad to be alone on Valentine’s day so you may as well hang out with a friend.”

 

“Is Jughead even my friend?” Reggie asked. “I’m not being sarcastic that’s a genuine question. I’m pretty sure he hates me.”

 

“Nah, that’s just Jughead’s natural state.”

 

“You sure?” Reggie asked. 

 

“Yeah, I’ll text him.”

 

Reggie managed to write about a paragraph before Archie poked his side. 

 

“He says he hopes you like twist ties.”

 

Reggie choked on his own spit. “What the fuck?!” He sputtered

 

They were kicked out of the library. 

 

“I’m one hundred percent positive he means that in an entirely innocent way,” Archie said. “Well, ninety-nine percent.”

 

* * *

 

That Sunday, Reggie stood on Jughead’s doorstep, hand hovering over the doorbell. He could just leave. Duck out. Blow this popsicle stand. Ditch.

 

Ooooohh, ding dong ditch. Even better.

 

But when he rang the doorbell, he didn’t run and hide, but stood there fiddling with his watch and shuffling his feet.

 

There was loud stomping from inside and the door practically banged open.

 

“Thank god!” Jughead exclaimed, red faced. “How good are you at blowing up balloons?”

 

It took Reggie way too long to process the question, because Jughead was covered in glittery, heart-shaped confetti and had a temporary tattoo of a heart with an arrow through it on his cheek.

 

“What the fuck?” was all Reggie could say.

 

“Balloons,” Jughead said. “Are you good at blowing up balloons?”

 

“I guess?” Reggie said, completely lost.

 

“Great, I need like five more and I don’t think I have any air left in my entire body,” Jughead said, and finally opened the screen door. Reggie stepped in.

 

“What are you doing?” Reggie asked.

 

“Archie said you didn’t have plans and could help me?” Jughead said, framing it more like a question than anything else.

 

“Help you with what?” Reggie looked around the room. There were small piles of candy, and heart-patterned pencils, and empty, heart-patterned gift bags strewn around the room. So many hearts. Too many.

 

“My mom signed up to be a room mom for Jellybean’s class Valentine’s Day party tomorrow,” Jughead scowled. “Then she realized she was too busy to do any preparation, so now that’s my job. But, if Archie tricked you, you can just go.”

 

“Nah, I’ll help,” Reggie said. “Should I take off my shoes?”

 

“Nah,” Jughead said. “I can take your coat though.”

 

Reggie handed him his coat and spotted Hot Dog in the corner. He was staying well out of the way of the glitter, in complete opposition to Jughead. Reggie offered him a hand. Hot Dog gave a cursory sniff and ignored him. Rude.

 

“We have to make gift bags for twenty-six six year olds, then bake cookies,” Jughead said. “Plus the balloons.”

 

“So that’s why you don’t have plans?” Reggie asked, and started blowing up a balloon.

 

“I don’t have plans because Valentine’s day doesn’t mean anything to me,” Jughead shrugged. “I’m fifteen, it’s not like I’m going to find my one true love right now, so there’s no real point.”

 

Reggie tied the balloon off. “Alright sounds cool Mr. Hot Topic.”

 

“Screw you,” Jughead responded, but Reggie was pretty sure he didn’t mean it.

 

They worked in silence for a while, and Reggie had just finished the balloons when Jughead spoke up.

 

“So why don’t you have plans?” 

 

“Oh, I just forgot it was even here,” Reggie shrugged. “I mean it’s only really worth it when you get all the half-price candy afterwards.”

 

“A man after my own heart,” Jughead said. “Oh, shit, I forgot. Can I get you anything to eat or drink?”

 

“Water would be great,” Reggie said, filling a gift bag.

 

“Are you saying water because you want water, or because you’re being polite?” Jughead asked. “Because we’ve been in school together for almost a decade. You don’t have to be polite.”

 

“Do you have coke?” Reggie asked, blushing a bit for some reason he couldn’t fathom.

 

“Sure,” Jughead stood and stretched. 

 

Reggie focused on tying a bag shut with a twist tie, ignoring the way his heart was pounding. Must be the overwhelming abundance of hearts everywhere. He was covered in confetti already, and when he tried to shake it off, the glitter in his hair rained down on him.

_ A man after my own heart. _

 

Why was that affecting him so much? 

Maybe Jughead was gay. What straight guy said that?

Man, he should be a detective or some shit.

 

Jughead handed him a can of coke and counted up the bags. “Great, only a couple left. I’ll start cleaning if you do the last three.”

 

“Sounds like a plan,” Reggie said.

 

Now that he knew Jughead was gay, he couldn’t stop staring at him. Jughead bending over, scraping confetti into a pile. Jughead lifting box of decorations. Jughead putting away the extra party favors.

 

“We should make the cookies,” Jughead said. Reggie followed him into the kitchen and read the recipe over his shoulder.

 

"I'll get wet, you get dry," Jughead said.

 

Reggie choked. "What?"

 

"...Ingredients..." Jughead said, looking at him. There was a worry line between his eyebrows.

 

"Oh, right," Reggie said, and grabbed a measuring cup.

 

Watching Jughead beat eggs, sugar, and vanilla together told him that Jughead had more muscle than he thought.

 

Reggie swore loudly as he missed the edge of the bowl of flour with his whisk and covered himself with the white powder.

 

“Reggie, we’ve talked about this,” Jughead said sorrowfully. “Your cocaine addiction is getting out of hand.”

 

Reggie stared at him for a second then laughed. 

 

“What about yours?” Reggie asked, and threw flour at him.

 

“This means war,” Jughead cried, flinging his hat across the room, and abandoning his mixing bowl on the counter in favor of picking up and egg and smashing it into Reggie’s shirt.

 

“Fuck you I like this shirt,” Reggie smashed an egg into Jughead’s shirt.

 

They let out war cries and threw flour at each other mercilessly.

 

“Take that!”

 

“Hiyahh!”

 

And then they were doing ridiculous kung-fu poses and Reggie fell over he was laughing so hard. He sunk to the floor, tears streaming down his face, and Jughead joined him, practically howling.

 

“Shit,” Jughead said between breaths. “I’m gonna have to clean this up.”

 

“It’s only this corner,” Reggie said. “I’ll help.”

 

“Thanks man,” Jughead said. There was sugar in his eyelashes.

 

“What’s with the tattoo?” Reggie asked.

 

“My sister,” Jughead said. “She asked if I wanted to be pretty and of course when you have a first grader asking that, you have to say yes.”

 

“Why?” Reggie couldn’t stop staring him. The egg on Jughead’s shirt was making it stick to his shoulder.

 

“I don’t want her to think that being pretty is a bad thing,” Jughead said, like it was obvious. “She’s young, I don’t want her to be as constrained by gender as the rest of us.”

 

Reggie didn’t respond. There was sugar on Jughead’s lips too.

 

“Something wrong?” Jughead asked, finally noticing Reggie’s attention.

 

“Uh, nope, nothing wrong here,” Reggie shook his head. “We should finish making that dough, yeah good plan. Cool.”

  
  
“You are, possibly, the worst liar I’ve ever heard in my entire life. And we’re friends with both Archie  _ and _ Betty.”

 

Reggie scratched the back of his head. 

 

“Are you gay?” Reggie asked.

 

Jughead straightened up completely from his collapsed position leaning against a kitchen cupboard. “What?”

 

“Are you gay?” Reggie repeated.

 

“I mean, I don’t know,” Jughead said. 

 

“How do you not know?” Reggie asked.

 

“I mean, I know I’m not straight, but I don’t know beyond that.”

 

“Can’t you tell?” Reggie asked.

 

“Okay, you know what?” Jughead said. “Just because you’re bi doesn’t mean you get to interrogate me on my sexuality. I’m still figuring shit out. I’m allow time to figure myself out, Reggie Mantle.”

 

“Fine, jeez, take your sweet ass time, but I’m not bi,” Reggie scoffed.  _ Shit. _

 

“You’ve been staring at my lips for almost five minutes,” Jughead said. “You’re staring at them right now.”

 

Reggie was, in fact staring at his lips. He dragged his eyes up to meet Jughead’s. Jughead had one eyebrow raised.

 

“You’re not gonna tell anyone, are you?” Reggie asked.

 

“No, of course not,” Jughead said, affronted. “That’d be so mean.”

 

“Right,” Reggie said. 

 

Jughead stood and offered a hand. 

 

“Come on, let’s finish these cookies,” Jughead said.

 

Reggie accepted his hand. 

 

“Yeah,” Reggie said. “Let’s.”

 

 

* * *

“Nice tat bro,” Moose said, poking Reggie’s cheek as they waited in the lunch line

 

Reggie ducked and swatted his hand away from the matching tattoo Jughead had given him. “Come on man, leave the face alone. Bro code. I need personal space. Respect me.”

 

“Nice glitter,” Archie said.

 

“It matches my beautiful personality,” Reggie said.

 

Moose snorted. “Don’t be so gay dude.”

 

“I’m not gay,” Reggie said. He met eyes Jughead across the cafeteria and his lips curled into a smile. “I am bi though.”

  
  
  
  
  



End file.
